I Believe

Monday, March 21, 2016

He Is Risen

How blessed we are to be children of a Heavenly Father, whose love is infinitely perfect and who is merciful beyond all measure that He sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer, die, and then burst the bands of death that we might live. What a beautiful time of year this is to reflect a little deeper upon our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ--the most Selfless being this world has ever seen. He Lives. He invites us to Follow Him. And He stands with arms of Mercy stretched out to you. Because of Him we can become whole, without spot, if we just accept him. How do we accept him? By living the Gospel of Jesus Christ--Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring the the End. My love and gratitude for Him has grown deeper as I've stood as a representative of Him--I'm inadequate, I'm weak, I make mistakes. But because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ I am enough and I receive strength enough to do what needs to be done. I love my Savior and Redeemer, the Prince of Peace, even Jesus Christ. I testify he lives and loves everyone of us--and because of His atonement we can be enough, we can make it through, and ultimately we can become perfect and live with God again.

Sister Langi (my companion) and Sister Vaa'i (my old companion) both finished their missions on Friday aaaaaand Sister Medina (my companion from the MTC) and I have been working together in Pangai (my area) until our new companions come (tomorrow).....soooooo my new companion is a PALANGI (white girl) and she's been out a couple months more than me and so I'm super excited!!! But I'll tell you more about that next week :)

It's been a lot of fun working with Sister Medina and leading out the area these past few days. It's kinda crazy because sometimes you don't know how capable you are until capable is the only thing you can be haha. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable communicating with people..and although I have a long way to go to be fluent, there has been a lot of progress. I really love the Tongan language, I love the people here, and I love the gospel--the mission has been so good for me...SO hard, but SO good. Aaaand I'm going to finish the Book of Mormon in Tongan tomorrow...which I'm super pumped about.

A lot of the people we teach turn out to be less actives but they just don't really remember they were baptized when they were younger..so that's a bit of a struggle. So we just treat them like an investigator but instead of them getting baptized we just try to get them to return to the church. And there are a lot of people who want to return to church but they married someone from another church and they won't let them return. So we teach the less active and try to teach their spouse but it's really hard to find them both home because most the time they're gone drinking kava and smoking with their friends.

One guy we started teaching is from America but he came to Tonga about two years ago and while he was in Tonga he got baptized like a few days after meeting the missionaries (I don't really know how that happened....) and he doesn't know very much about the church. He's been attending church the past year but he doesn't really know Tongan..so we've been teaching him the doctrines and it's really weird teaching in English. Especially saying the prayer in English...I sound so awkward! haha but it's good, I'm glad we're here to help him learn the doctrines.

Heart, Might, Mind, & Strength

"My mission belongs to the Lord. With all my heart I give my energy and my time to the Master because I love Him. Therefore, I'm going to look at every day not as mine, but as His. And I will treat each minute of his time with respect and focus and the dedication that it deserves."